"I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos, the eye of the storm, with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction." - Saul Bellow
We’ve been traveling all over this big, beautiful Earth to photograph weddings for 13 years, and year after year, we choose to push beyond our comfort zones, guiding ourselves with a ferocious curiosity, trusting our intuition, and keeping it fun.
Revered by our colleagues and clients as anti-cliche wedding photographers because of our innate rebellion against mainstream wedding imagery (insert wedding dress hanging in a window), we’ve always found ourselves questioning the trends that stem from wedding blogs and social media that place unrealistic notions of perfection and hope to dismantle this by refusing to take contrived images.
As Artists, we chose this path of photography because the intimacy of weddings allows us to intimately bear witness to incredibly raw & human moments and to connect with people, which has brought us some of our most cherished, lifelong friendships.
As Photographers, it’s an absolute honor and deeply rewarding to know that the photos we take will be smiled upon for decades to come & cherished by generations beyond us.
With Gratitude,
Chellise & Mike
Rooted in Brooklyn, NYC, and the Hudson Valley - We travel Worldwide
Photo: Meredith Heuer
Our Gift To You
Being photographed by someone you know always feels better, which is why we gift a portrait session to you before your wedding.
We do this session in your home, maybe do a lap around your neighborhood, and will try to sneak up onto the roof. The purpose of this session is to get to know you, to see how you interact with each other, and to get you past the awkward camera-in-your-face feeling. This time with you builds comfort & trust not only for you but for us as well. (we need it as much as you do). Giving this gift & being invited into your home sets the tone and gives us access to creating genuine & honest portraits of you two during this phase of your lives together.
Our Approach
Call us “hybrid” cuz we shoot on digital and 35mm film. If we’re talking labels, our work is considered candid heavy & documentary style with a dose of editorial when the inspo hits.
As visual artists, we don’t see a line between our personal and client work because it all comes from the heart. While shooting weddings, we insert ourselves as part observer, part participant, and part spy, following our intuition and curiosity, collecting fragments, and responding to the energy of everyone & everything around us.
We’ve been doing this long enough to know that when our couples look back on their photos, they won’t get the fuzzy feels from looking back at a contrived photo from a “shot list”, rather, it’s the candid, tender, unexpected, fleeting & happy moments of them & their favorite people that transport them back to how it felt that day. That’s what photography is for.
We find that the more open, trusting, and inviting our couples are with us and our process, the more honest and fulfilling our images become. So really, all you need to do is get hitched, be present, sip champagne, dance your heart out, and soak up every minute while we take care of documenting everyone’s memories… including the fuzzy ones.
